Correspondents' Correspondence

...Hoxha, as always, was "the great leader of the Albanian people" and "the long-tested vanguard of the Albanian working class," while Albania was saluted as "the citadel of revolution towering in Europe...

...remittances from relatives abroad, once a principal source of income, are returned...

...At the same time, though, the castlelike buildings of the ruling classes point to a hierarchical form of society...

...Yet from Tirana, along with the familiar rhetoric came the suggestion of new developments...

...Without Chinese support, Albania has few prospects for the sort of profitable foreign relations it requires...

...This should have been welcomed, since the areas of Albania inhabited by ethnic Greeks were easily overrun by Greece in 1940-41 in the wake of the Italian invasion, but it was met by suspicion...

...True, some chronicles do remain...

...Correspondents Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Albania Alone New York—It used to be said not so long ago that there were three common forms of erotic perversion: the lust of man for man, of woman for woman and of Enver Hoxha's Albania for Mao Tse-tung's China...

...The Chinese, a notably pragmatic people, have apparently concluded there is little to gain by expending more than verbal bouquets on the scruffy Albanians...

...the photographic documentation will be complemented by air photos, sketches and floor plans...

...And it would not be surprising if an announcement were made soon that an indeterminate number of Chinese "advisers and technicians" in Albania are leaving...

...For the ruler of a small and backward nation, Hoxha has shown considerable dexterity in the art of survival...

...We tell them: 'Continue, if you will, your old occupation of being Northern Epirotes because neither we nor the Greek minority in Albania are afraid of you, since Albanians and minority Greeks are closely united as brothers.'" The statement was absurd...

...The end result of the study, it is hoped, will be an increased understanding of a continent whose history is far richer than is sometimes supposed...

...Recognizing this, Dr...

...Following the establishment of relations and the installation of the present Greek government, Athens attempted to increase trade, renewing agreements made by the junta and beginning further talks—moves also accepted by Albania with hesitation...

...For the foreseeable future, Hoxha's dilemma is plain: Without "revisionism" there can be no improvement of neighborly relations...

...In a letter dated October 30, Hua Kuo-feng, Mao's successor, hailed his Albanian colleagues with the customary praise...

...Anthropologists are attempting to determine the nature of the societies the buildings once served, the interrelationships between rulers and ruled, and, by examining the huts used as fortifications, the military organization of the region...

...In other words, Chinese aid for its staunchest European ally is probably about to be cut—a serious blow to an already troubled economy...

...Mao now is gone and so, alas, may be the mutual ardor...

...Nevertheless, for large areas and for long periods of time, the modern historian of Africa has no literature to guide him...

...Even before the Greek colonels initiated diplomatic and trade relations with Tirana, Athens had communicated assurances of its desire for peace between the two countries...

...The nature of some of the findings can be seen in the words of a Forbenius scholar: "The monumental sacred buildings, up to 100 feet high, tell us about the sophistication of their architects...

...Strid-ter of the Institute embarked on the initial mud-hut survey in 1970-71, producing photographic documentation of surviving buildings in the northern Sahara...

...And when Greece indicated a willingness to enter into regional arrangements with Albania, the overture was rejected...

...To be sure, tender billets-doux continued to be exchanged at the Albanian Party of Labor's Seventh Congress last November...

...The large 'clan citadels,' farmsteads shut off from the outside world by high walls and housing extended families, are characteristic of the close-meshed structure or relationships among the peasants...

...The large number of purged "revisionists" includes former Politburo members Piro Dodbiba and Manush Myftiu...

...Thomas Land...

...Meanwhile, Hoxha and Premier Mehmet Shehu have not allowed ideological differences and the treatment of Yugoslavia's Albanian minority to become major points of contention...

...If he finds a way out of his current predicament, he may well prove worthy of the extravagant encomia lavished by his erstwhile partners from Peking.—Pyrrhus J. Ruches A Study in Mud Frankfurt—Africa's mighty mud architecture—one of the last remaining artifacts of a bygone world—has at last attracted scholarly attention...

...One possibility is strengthening existing ties with neighboring Yugoslavia and Greece...

...with "revisionism," he and his top-ranking comrades may be doomed...

...The mud architecture, which is found in such West African countries as Mali, Upper Volta, Dahomey, Niger, and Nigeria, as well as in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, is being subjected to detailed scrutiny by scholars in a variety of disciplines...

...Meanwhile Hoxha, who says he has nothing to fear from his Greek minority, has decided to force eradication of "un-Albanian" personal and place names...

...Marxist rhetoric aside, if future relations with China are to be limited to mutual kowtows on ceremonial occasions, Albania must seek a new course...

...Tirana, after all, is no longer Peking's voice in the United Nations...

...Indeed, the technological gap between Africa and Europe did not appear to widen significantly until the end of the Middle Ages...

...Hua did not hesitate to pledge that China "will follow Mao Tse-tung's behest and . . . constantly strengthen the solidarity between our two Parties, two countries and two peoples...

...The Institute's enterprise reflects an imperative in the study of Africa —not to rely on written sources...

...The situation with Greece poses different problems...

...But, Hoxha added, "despite its great importance, the external factor—internationalist aid and solidarity—is only an auxiliary and supplementary element and not the determining factor...

...The extent to which Greek-Albanian relations depend on a lessening of Albanian paranoia was demonstrated by a reference Hoxha made at the November Congress: "As for the monarchofascists and the so-called Northern Epirote madmen who from time to time try with their unreasonable allegations to create a tense atmosphere in the relations of our two countries, we wish to say that their outcries provoke much amusement among the Greek minority population that lives happily in Albania...

...He must turn to nonwritten resources—including, besides architecture, botany, linguistics and musicology...

...The king of ancient Ghana, for example, described by the Muslim geographer El-Bekri, ruled over a state much larger and wealthier than the England of his contemporaries...

...Albania, he said, must learn to live by the "principle of reliance on one's own forces...

...Our Party and our people," First Secretary Hoxha told the Congress, "express their deep gratitude to the Chinese people and Party for their valuable aid and support...

...What will the mud buildings reveal about these cultures...

...In addition, emigres in Greece, the United States and elsewhere find that letters to their kin are not getting through...

...All this, to be sure, does not promote warm Greek-Albanian relations...

...But any long-range overtures toward Yugoslavia will of course have to be put off until Tito leaves the scene...

...Although what Albania will do without outside help is unclear, the source of its troubles is not difficult to determine...

...The records of Ethiopia, for instance, go back nearly a thousand years...

...The current project—expected to extend over several years—will also include sub-Saharan countries...

...Moscow and Washington have made bids for friendship, but Tirana continues to oppose the United States and promises not to improve relations with the Soviet Union—at least not while the ailing "arch-revisionist Brezhnev" is still the "Kremlin Tsar...

...Architects reconstructing original plans are concerned with building techniques and stylistic influences...

...Finally, political historians hope to identify links between architectural forms and economics, socio-political formations, and ecological conditions...

...The "Northern Epirotes"—refugees from Albania, many with kin still in the country—are now fully integrated in Greece and not about to launch a PLO-type operation against their homeland...

...Historians are becoming increasingly convinced, in fact, that for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans, Africans lived in highly organized and complex societies which produced great monarchies, armies, religions, systems of law and commerce, and works of art and architecture...

...So it is unlikely that China again will buy French wheat to feed Albanians...

...And not only are the happy denizens of Hoxha's Albania denied freedom of worship and passports to visit or emigrate, but their Stalinist keepers are busy "reeducating" many of them in jails and labor battalions...

...The Forbenius Institute here has recently undertaken an inventory of this exceptional and hitherto-ignored branch of African culture because, according to director Eike Haberland, "we want to record an important testimony to African creative powers before the buildings vanish...

...Nor does it play an important role in the creation and growth of Europe's negligible Maoist factions...